Photo Essay Gregory Crewdson

 When working on my final photo project, I wanted to emulate an artist that is well versed in capturing atmosphere and ambiance in an image really well. The stillness and atmosphere that is quite eerie, often seen in works of Gregory Crewdson. 

An American photographer, Crewdson often stages his images as large, elaborate, cinematic photographs. They always happen in small-town American suburbs, with surreal  and haunting scenes of  what middle class America is like for the forgotten. With meticulously crafted sets and dramatic lighting to sell the scene it truly is a film set for photography. Some of his most famous series that can best express his attention to detail includes "Beneath the Roses". 

I love this series because of its sense of mystery and unease. The man standing standing in the street as a car passes by the stop light engulfing you in a sense of uneasiness, as if you were there with him walking by what is happening. Crewdson puts you into the images with that unease so life life and surreal. I'm sure we have all been through a scene like this or close to it, where you're just walking by a hapless stranger wondering what's going on in their day and what's got them so melancholy, just to continue about your day and never think about that person again. That's what these images feel like too me, a moment of sad curiosity.

I wanted to to take from that atmosphere and turn it into my own self portrait project, using panoramic shots of my own slice of suburbia, Williamsport. Crafting panoramic shots of the the city with me in each one, with different expressions and each one with it's own story within them. using wide angle and close up shots to set the scene of my character(me). But not all of the images are the traditional panoramic. Utilizing photoshop and hundreds of little images I wanted to make panoramic that felt surreal and had a sense of mystery. Some of the panoramic images aren't what one would call panoramic in the normal sense, long images with wide widths and narrow lengths. But instead utilize full images with a better sense of the environment, using wider lengths and  still keeping the wide widths too. A little bit of Crewdson with my own twist.